Which BIOS version did you have ? And which were you trying to flash too ? Which board rev are you tring to flash ?
added: https://web.archive.org/web/20001109193000/ht … s.html#PM-8600A > if not rev 2.4/2.5 board you might have tried to flash the wrong bios...
It is possible that your current eeprom is dieing and why the flash did not work....
I have a TL866 plus and maybe could flash it. Why I say 'maybe' is because Amptron (aka PcChips) used some very odd eeproms on occasion on some boards. Live west coast USA....
You need to pull back the sticker to see what the eeprom is, it may have garble-de-gook writing as they liked to wipe the real eeprom manufacture off and put their odd number...

Hello,
Same thing happened to me few weeks ago, you need to build a rescue disk and boot form it.

Please check this thread: Failed BIOS update (award) - Dead PC :-(

Horun wrote on 2023-12-14, 04:47:

Which BIOS version did you have ? And which were you trying to flash too ? Which board rev are you tring to flash ? added: https […]
Show full quote

Which BIOS version did you have ? And which were you trying to flash too ? Which board rev are you tring to flash ?
added: https://web.archive.org/web/20001109193000/ht … s.html#PM-8600A > if not rev 2.4/2.5 board you might have tried to flash the wrong bios...
It is possible that your current eeprom is dieing and why the flash did not work....
I have a TL866 plus and maybe could flash it. Why I say 'maybe' is because Amptron (aka PcChips) used some very odd eeproms on occasion on some boards. Live west coast USA....
You need to pull back the sticker to see what the eeprom is, it may have garble-de-gook writing as they liked to wipe the real eeprom manufacture off and put their odd number...

I'm pretty sure it was the original BIOS.
I don't remember what BIOS I was trying to flash to it., I had my lil' hard drive mishap and I lost a bunch of stuff and it's been a while and I've forgotten 🙁
The motherboard revision is 2.5
I've included a pic of the BIOS chip with the label peeled off like you asked.

Ok that is typical Amptron garble-de-gook, possibly it was bios 97132s.... but not sure, there is no other bios that would correspond to those numbers.
The last bios known for the 8600A is 8600A-012399.ZIP (01/23/1999) according to their archives...
the only eeproms supported by the flasher is SST 28EE010 & 28EE011 /5V. AMD 29F010 /5V. INTEL 28F001BX-T /12V. 28F010 /12V.
WINBOND 29EE011 /5V. MXIC 28F1000AP /12V. MXIC 28F1000P /12V. ATMEL 29C010A /5V. ATMEL 29C010A.
If a MX28F1000AP they can be hard to flash/replace IIRC and are board specific (the others are somewhat standard)....

Horun wrote on 2023-12-15, 05:32:

Ok that is typical Amptron garble-de-gook, possibly it was bios 97132s.... but not sure, there is no other bios that would corre […]
Show full quote

Ok that is typical Amptron garble-de-gook, possibly it was bios 97132s.... but not sure, there is no other bios that would correspond to those numbers.
The last bios known for the 8600A is 8600A-012399.ZIP (01/23/1999) according to their archives...
the only eeproms supported by the flasher is SST 28EE010 & 28EE011 /5V. AMD 29F010 /5V. INTEL 28F001BX-T /12V. 28F010 /12V.
WINBOND 29EE011 /5V. MXIC 28F1000AP /12V. MXIC 28F1000P /12V. ATMEL 29C010A /5V. ATMEL 29C010A.
If a MX28F1000AP they can be hard to flash/replace IIRC and are board specific (the others are somewhat standard)....

I tried the "hotflash" method that @mtest001 mentioned..
I tried 2 different flashing programs.
I included a flashing program pic to see if it means anything to you...?
It just stuck on that screen and didn't do anything else.

Sounds like a bad eeprom, they do die (specially those that have the ESCD written with every boot)....

Horun wrote on 2023-12-16, 02:52:

Sounds like a bad eeprom, they do die (specially those that have the ESCD written with every boot)....

Do you or anyone else have any ideas?
or
Like how do I buy one?
Where do I buy one?
What type do I buy?
And what do I do with it once I get it? LoL :3

Does anyone have any links? 😀

Maybe worth keeping trying different version of Awdflash, in my case I tried at least 3 or 4 before succeeding.

Did you tried flashing using Uniflash? https://theretroweb.com/drivers/75

EDIT: Another link: http://www.rainbow-software.org/uniflash/

AwdFlash 5.2B is what comes with the PM8600 bios files, AwdFlash 5.4 or 5.6 should also work (lists internally same plus few more eeprom types)...

Horun wrote on 2023-12-16, 16:20:

AwdFlash 5.2B is what comes with the PM8600 bios files, AwdFlash 5.4 or 5.6 should also work (lists internally same plus few more eeprom types)...

Yaaaay! 😀
Uniflash worked this time (:
I tried hotflashing in a different motherboard this time (:
The other motherboard that didn't work has a VIA chipset.
The motherboard that worked this time has an Intel chipset 😀
I was reading the UNIFLASH.txt and they mention that Intel chipsets work 99% of the time so I decided to try it and it worked 😀
Good thing I have a board with an Intel chipset 😀

Thank You guys Very Much for all your help 😀

Good job ! Ahh I see Uniflash on Intel shows the eeprom as a MX28F1000P but the AWD5.2b on VIA showed as 28F010, maybe that Via board was interferring with proper flash type detection...
Which bios version did you use ?

Horun wrote on 2023-12-16, 20:32:

Good job ! Ahh I see Uniflash on Intel shows the eeprom as a MX28F1000P but the AWD5.2b on VIA showed as 28F010, maybe that Via board was interferring with proper flash type detection...
Which bios version did you use ?

I used the one from your very first post.
From the link.,

PM-8600A v2.4 / 2.5 01/23/1999
'86A0123S.BIN' 😀